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With the holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time to get your ducks in a row when it comes to hiring seasonal workers for your small business.
Temporary workers aren’t going to have the same expectations or commitment to a position as a full-time employee, which can often lead to confusion or miscommunication at best and disaster at worst. It’s all too easy to throw more employees at the holiday rush for a few months, but there are too many unknowns for this to be a smart business practice.
Today we’re going to explore what it takes to properly hire, insure, and organize your business during the most festive days of the year.
No matter what type of business you own, when it comes to looking for seasonal workers, it’s often best to think outside the box. Most businesses have actually had a lot of luck with hiring their own customers rather than trying to post an ad in the paper or on an online job website.
The advantage of hiring a regular customer is that they already have a loyalty to your brand, and they may be more willing to give up their time and energy to work for you on the premise of lending a helping hand. A seasonal employee who loves your products or services may also be far more interested in an employee discount than they are in their hourly wage.
Another group that seems perfect for holiday work is retirees. Older people are often looking for a little extra money during the holidays, and a seasonal job gives them a way to earn it without having to make a full-time commitment.
A seasonal hire needs to understand exactly what their job will be like before they get started so everyone is on the same page. Think that you may want to hire a full-time person by the time your after-Christmas sale wraps up? Mention this in the description. Do your customers tend to become surly with one another on the sheer basis of holiday stress? A seasonal employee should really know this before they decide whether or not to even apply for the job.
Even the most basic retail sales jobs have their own quirks that make them unique. Whether positive or negative characteristics, setting expectations is going to be especially important when hiring an employee that assumes they’ll be out of a job again in just a month or two.
Motivating your seasonal workers during the holiday usually means treating them like they’re as integral to the organization as their full-time counterparts. They should be thoroughly trained and even cross-trained if time permits.
Employers also need to recognize and address all problems with seasonal employees immediately. If you’re noticing that a worker isn’t committed to their job or they’re struggling to master basic duties, it’s not likely to get better if you ignore it. These red flags can often be a warning of bigger problems to come.
Seasonal employees have the same rules that regular employees have when it comes to withholding taxes. Some may not have to pay income tax if they don’t hit the minimum requirements for their yearly wages, such as a retired person whose only income is a holiday job. It’s up to the employee to talk to a tax professional to see whether or not they’re exempt from federal income tax, so they can let you know on their tax forms.
If any of your workers earn tips, remind them that their tips are not exempt from taxation. All income is to be documented and reported to the IRS to stay compliant with the law.
Small businesses are required to have worker’s compensation for all seasonal employees either through their own carrier or a state insurance program. This compensation can cover everything from a broken leg if an employee trips while taking out the trash to a wrenched back after picking up a heavy box of product.
There’s also employment practices liability insurance that covers any claims an employee may bring against you. In the case of seasonal employment where workers often have no emotional connection to their job, EPLI insurance can be the only thing that can save your business from a particularly nasty lawsuit. As for benefits, most small businesses are not required to offer health care coverage to an employee working less than 4 months.
Seasonal employees are often the only way a business can get through the increased demands of them, but it takes some careful planning for a small business to do it right.
What do companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have in common? Aside from being some of the largest organizations in the world, they’re all places that many people would love to work. Part of the reason why is the fact that they all have a great corporate culture.
Does your company?
Even if your business is small, you can develop an amazing corporate culture that helps recruit and retain amazing employees. Watch our latest video to learn how!
One way to show your employees that they matter is to provide a great benefits package. Download our free group health insurance ebook to learn how you can start offering the best coverage for your team at a cost that works for you.
Since its creation in 2010, Small Business Saturday has steadily grown as a national initiative. Today, business owners, community leaders, non-profit organizations, and everyday citizens in all 50 states come together the Saturday after Thanksgiving to boost their local economies and strengthen their communities.
In 2016, small business owners generated an estimated $15.4 billion dollars on Small Business Saturday alone. This year, Small Business Saturday falls on November 25th. Is your business ready to take advantage of this growing movement?
Here are six ways you can make the most of Small Business Saturday this year!
American Express, the creator and official sponsor of Small Business Saturday, is offering a free Shop Small® Studio tool on their website, which allows you to create your own customized marketing graphics. Take advantage of this feature to create signage that advertises your business’s participation.
Print flyers to post locally and at your business, and download high-quality graphics to share on your website and social media profiles. Using a large graphic as your Facebook cover photo is a good way to ensure that everyone who visits your profile will see that you are participating in Small Business Saturday.
In addition to sharing your participation with your social media followers, you should also create a public Facebook event with the date, time, and location that your sale or event will be taking place. Facebook events tend to generate a lot of interest, even from people who do not already follow you on the platform. Creating and promoting an event on Facebook is free and may even gain you some new followers.
If you have a good relationship with another non-competing small business in your area, consider joining forces for Small Business Saturday. If you own a small retail shop, you could give your customers coupons for a free appetizer at the local diner, while the diner could give their customers a coupon for savings at your store.
Doing so could help both businesses drive customers to one another. Online businesses can also use this strategy by including a coupon for another business in the order confirmation e-mail that a customer receives after making a purchase.
In order to compete with the savings that customers expect from large retailers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’ll need to offer discounts greater than 10%. You may also couple or supplement this with free items or coupons for future purchases. For online retailers, offering free shipping is a must on Small Business Saturday.
Turn your Small Business Saturday sale into a fun community event for locals. You can provide light refreshments and musical entertainment, host raffles, and take up a collection of needed items for a local food bank or shelter. Add a festive backdrop to one wall with some fun photobooth props and set up a selfie station for more exposure on social media. Don’t forget the hashtag!
Between the midnight openings on Black Friday and the 24-hour shopping available on the internet, your customers expect to be able to do their holiday shipping when it is convenient for them. For Small Business Saturday, open earlier and close later than usual to gain some new customers who may otherwise pass you by.
These tips will help you spread the word about your business, meet new customers, and kick off the holiday sales season by creating a sense of community. For extra peace of mind during this busy time, make sure you have all of the right insurance coverages in place—contact us for a quote today!
Many new business owners are confused about the type of company that’s right for them. When it comes to organizational structures, you have the choice between:
There are many important details you need to decide about your business early on in order to determine which type of organization will be right for you. Watch our latest Legal Corner video to learn more!
Whatever your business type, the insurance professionals at InsureYourCompany.com can make sure you’re covered. Contact us today for a free quote or a free assessment of your unique insurance needs!
Term life insurance is a kind of time-limited life insurance policy whose value declines to zero after a certain term. This is in contrast to whole life insurance, which pays a benefit at the death of the insured person no matter what age.
Whole life insurance mixes an insurance product with an investment product; the policy holder pays into the policy for a certain payout eventually. In that sense, term life insurance is what they call “pure insurance” because the insured is paying to cover a risk of death.
Term life insurance tends to be less expensive than whole life with lower initial premiums than whole life. Heads of families tend to buy into these term policies that cover them financially while they are in their peak employment years, accumulating wealth in support of their families. They will usually stop paying premiums and the insurance will no longer cover them after the peak employment years when the payout is less necessary.
When you buy term life insurance you have two decisions to make:
Term life policies are almost always sold with standard fixed terms of 5, 10, 20, 25, or 30 years. They can almost never be customized outside these standard terms. If you buy term insurance for a longer term, you are locking in your premium cost for a longer time even as the probability of death increases.
In a way, it pays to take a longer term. If your longest lasting obligation ends in 17 years, round up and buy a policy that covers you for 20 years.
There are three main kinds of term life insurance in the marketplace.
Level term insurance are policies where the death benefit is the same for the entire term period. The premiums you pay may also be level for the entire term of the policy. The premiums may also be level only for a period of time and may increase over time.
Decreasing term insurance are policies in which the death benefit decreases over the term period. Premiums may actually increase as the death benefit decreases. This kind of insurance is usually purchased by people who want to cover a financial risk that decreases over time, such as a loan whose principle decreases as it’s paid down.
Annual renewable term insurance policies are short-term life insurance policies which can be renewed for another term without having to demonstrate that the insured person is in good health. As long as the premium is paid, the policy can be automatically renewed up to a certain specified age. Many states end renewability at the age of 80.
Another variation on basic term life insurance is called convertible insurance. These policies include a clause that enables the owner of a term policy to convert the policy to whole life during a specified period of time without having to show that he or she is in good health.
Term life policies will have to stay in force as long as you continue to pay the premiums due. The rules generally state that if you miss a premium due date, you will have a 30-day grace period to pay the due premium. The policy remains in effect during the grace period. Your term policy will terminate if you fail to pay during the grace period.
If you buy life insurance through an employer’s group or another group, the policy is likely to terminate if you are no longer a member of the group, through job loss or other reasons.
InsureYourCompany.com was founded in 2001 with the idea to make insurance better for business owners, and we’ve expanded our products to do the same for individuals and families as well. We take a hands-on approach to help our clients now and in the future. Contact us for a free quote otday!
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If you are in the IT industry InsureYourCompany.com is the insurance agent you want to work with, we are technology insurance experts and have changed the way you do business. See below a list of professionals who we help today.
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